Thursday, 16 April 2015

Achille Mbembe writes about Xenophobic South Africa

“Afrophobia”?
“Xenophobia”? “Black on black racism”? A “darker” as you can get hacking a
“foreigner” under the pretext of his being too dark — self hate par excellence?
Of course all of that at once! Yesterday I asked a taxi driver: “why do they
need to kill these “foreigners” in this manner?”. His response: “because under
Apartheid, fire was the only weapon we Blacks had. We did not have ammunitions,
guns and the likes. With fire we could make petrol bombs and throw them at the
enemy from a safe distance”. Today there is no need for distance any longer. To
kill “these foreigners”, we need to be as close as possible to their body which
we then set in flames or dissect, each blow opening a huge wound that can never
be healed. Or if it is healed at all, it must leave on “these foreigners” the
kinds of scars that can never be erased.

I was here during the
last outbreak of violence against “these foreigners”. Since then, the cancer
has metastized. The current hunt for “foreigners” is the product of a complex
chain of complicities — some vocal and explicit and others tacit. The South
African government has recently taken a harsh stance on immigration. New,
draconian measures have been passed into law. Their effects are devastating for
people already established here legally. A few weeks ago I attended a meeting
of “foreign” staff at Wits University. Horrific stories after horrific stories.
Work permits not renewed. Visas refused to family members. Children in limbo in
schools. A Kafkaian situation that extends to “foreign” students who entered
the country legally, had their visas renewed all this time, but who now find
themselves in a legal uncertainty, unable to register, and unable to access the
money they are entitled to and that had been allocated to them by Foundations.
Through its new anti-immigration measures, the government is busy turning
previously legal migrants into illegal ones.

Chains of complicity go
further. South African big business is expanding all over the Continent, at
times reproducing in those places the worse forms of racism that were tolerated
here under Apartheid. While big business is “de-nationalizing” and
“Africanizing”, poor black South Africa and parts of the middle class are being
socialized into something we should call “national-chauvinism”.
National-chauvinism is rearing its ugly head in almost every sector of the
South African society. The thing with national-chauvinism is that it is in
permanent need of scapegoats. It starts with those who are not our kins. But
very quickly, it turns fratricidal. It does not stop with “these foreigners”.
It is in its DNA to end up turning onto itself in a dramatic gesture of
inversion.

I was here during the
last “hunting season”. The difference, this time, is the emergence of the
rudiments of an “ideology”. We now have the semblance of a discourse aimed at
justifying the atrocities, the creeping pogrom since this is what it actually
is. An unfolding pogrom to be sure. The justificatory discourse starts with the
usual stereotypes — they are darker than us; they steal our jobs; they do not
respect us; they are used by whites who prefer to exploit them rather than
employing us, therefore avoiding the requirements of affirmative action. But
the discourse is becoming more vicious. It can be summarized as follows: South
Africa does not owe any moral debt to Africa. Evoke the years of exile? No,
there were less than 30,000 South Africans in exile (I have been hit with this
figure but I have no idea where it is coming from) and they were all scattered
throughout the world — 4 in Ghana, 3 in Ethiopia, a few in Zambia, and many
more in Russia and Eastern Europe! So we will not accept to be morally
blackmailed by “those foreigners”.

Well, let’s ask hard
questions. Why is South Africa turning into a killing field for non-national
Africans (to whom we have to add the Bengalis, Pakistanis, and who knows whom
next)? Why has this country historically represented a “circle of death” for
anything and anybody ‘African’? When we say “South Africa”, what does the term
“Africa” mean? An idea, or simply a geographical accident? Should we start
quantifying what was sacrificed by Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia,
Tanzania, Zambia and others during the liberation struggle? How much money did
the Liberation Committee of the Organization of African Unity (OUA) provide to
the liberation movements? How many dollars did the Nigerian state pay for South
Africa’s struggle? If we were to put a price tag to the destructions meted out
by the Apartheid regime on the economy and infrastructures of the Frontline states,
what would this amount to? And once all of this has been quantified, shouldn’t
we give the bill to the ANC government that has inherited the South African
state and ask them to pay back what was spent on behalf of the black oppressed
in South Africa during those long years? Wouldn’t we be entitled to add to all
these damages and losses the number of people killed by Apartheid armies
retaliating against our hosting South African combatants in our midsts, the
number of people maimed, the long chain of misery and destitution suffered in
the name of our solidarity with South Africa? If black South Africans do not
want to hear about any moral debt, maybe it is time to agree with them, give
them the bill and ask for economic reparations.

Of course we all see the
absurdity of this logic of insularity that is turning this country into yet
another killing field for the darker people, “these foreigners”. But it would
not be absurd, since the government of South Africa is either unable or
unwilling to protect those who are here legally from the ire of its people, to
appeal to a higher authority. South Africa has signed most international
conventions, including the Convention establishing the International Penal
Tribunal in The Hague. Some of the instigators of the current “hunting season”
are known. Some have been making public statements inciting hate. Is there any
way in which we could think about referring them to The Hague? Impunity breeds
impunity and atrocities. It is the shortest way to genocide. If these perpetrators
cannot be brought to book by the South African State, isn’t it time to get a
higher jurisdiction to deal with them?

Finally, one word about
“foreigners” and “migrants”. No African is a foreigner in Africa! No African is
a migrant in Africa! Africa is where we all belong, notwithstanding the
foolishness of our boundaries. No amount of national-chauvinism will erase
this. No amount of deportations will erase this. Instead of spilling black
blood on no other than Pixley ka Seme Avenue (!), we should all be making sure
that we rebuild this Continent and bring to an end a long and painful history —
that which, for too long, has dictated that to be black (it does not matter
where or when), is a liability.

Frantz Fanon

1925 - 1961

This Blog

This blog contains resources directly related to Frantz Fanon's life and work, the secondary literature on Fanon and other resources useful for engaging Fanon's ideas here and now. Some of what is here comes from, or relates to, a particular set of ongoing discussions around Fanon's work in Grahamstown.